Here's a Yorkshire ladder stay hooked into a steel dog on Ellenroad chimney in 1987.  The stayes are mounted on the ladder with a bolt through a slot so the length of the stay can be adjusted.  The ladders are socketed at the ends and don't need lashing together.

I'm going all dizzy after that shot from up high.

Dangerous work....must pay well.

No more dangerous than most building trade work,Peter Tatham always said its far more dangerous on a roof ,because you cant slide off a chimney.Yorkshire ladders are very good for mill maintanence work,church building repairs and even domestic repairs,if you put a few sets up 10ft apart you can put scaffold boards across the steel arms,giving you a larger work area idea for pointing or painting and gutter repairs or replacement,this can save you keep having to move your bosuns chair which you only have a limited work area,or keep moving your extension ladder on domestic jobs.

Lancashire ladders can be used in the same way ,but you need to use ladder hangers not the ones that hook on the rungs ,the're illegal some have been designed to hook onto the cheeks of the ladder and fit a handrail to it ,another health and safety requirement.Soon we wont need ladders we'll be able to climb up the paper work and red tape.

The man who broke his neck was actually the ladder maker from DOBSON'S ladder makers on manchester rd Oldham,he made a ladder one day climbed about 18" slipped and landed funny he didn't work again for 18 month's.The guy who fell off the top off the top of the first ladder was Colin Leatham,he used to work for peter in the early 60's when he first aquired the firm after his grandfathers death,I think he broke his leg,I also think he and his 2 brothers were first employed by Peters gr/father when Peter was working in Nottingham for a firm called Turners( i think) after a big fall out with his gr/father.after that the 3 brothers set up on there own ,they bought out Mittens steeplejacks of Oldham and traded under the name for some years before changing it to APEX lancashire steeplejacks ,Littleborough,after buying out the company owned by Bob Brogden of Heywood.I think peter said they were the men who removed the drum from the Ellenroad.I think they are still trading today,albeit long in the tooth.(they were very hard and feared men in there prime).

Maz, my wife wishes I was like mr febby ,she say's I never overdo anything.

The firm in Gloucestershire was called Winterbottom,Strachen and playne,they started about 1700 producing the woolen scarlet tunics worn by the military at the time,at the time i was there with Peter they were making the cloth for Riley snooker tables and the material for the Wimbledon tennis balls.I think he got the work in the early 70s through one of the engineers who came from Huddersfield ,he was based at Stroud,there were also mills at Cam(near dursley)and Nailsworth.Higgy falling and breaking his arm is highly likely ,the Scrumpy cider was "very special".

Peter appeared to have a difficult relationship with his gr/father,reading between the lines of what he told me it may all of stemmed from Peter being born out of wedlock,some kind of resentment.His gr/father was a very hard task master,Peters mother told me that she was made to work on chimneys when she was younger.

The three brothers are called Leatham from Littleborough,them and all the other steeplejacks from the Rochdale area used to drink in a pub at Hamer,can't remember the name but it was nicknamed "the bloodbath".